Límites entre el ahorro fiscal y la defraudación punible: las actuaciones en fraude a la ley tributaria

Abstract

Abstract. Throughout Europe and in particular in Spain, scholars have noticed growing and disturbing case-law which confuses cases of tax fraud with the simulation provided for in the objective description of the tax crimes, showing a clear trend to benefit the financial interests of the Public Treasury over the principles of modern Criminal Law, inspired by the principle of democracy. Fortunately, the decision of the Spanish Constitutional Tribunal n.o 120/2005 of May 10, which had a great impact both among scholars and in daily practice, reestablished the apparently lost dogmatic rationality. In the present article, the author analyzes the technical aspects of the decision, as well as its dogmatic implications, in order to clarify whether certain behaviors qualified as tax fraud fall within the scope of the description of the tax crime or, on the contrary, such analogy implies a violation of the principle of legality, as may be qualified as an analogy in malam partem.